Mass Effect:The World we Used to Know
by codenamearchangel
Summary: A recap story of the events in Mass Effect 1 with bonus dialogue and scenes mainly including Shepard and Garrus. Commander Jennifer Shepard of the Alliance must gather a team on the SSV Normandy to stop Saren and find out the secrets behind the mysterious "Reapers". Rated T for some language. Some minor Garrus "crushing" on Shepard but nothing inappropriate.
1. Author's Note

**Author's Note:**

Hello readers! Welcome to my story. Before reading, I'd like to fill you in on what to expect from this fanfiction.  
The Mass Effect fanfiction your about to read is 100% true to the story based on _Paragon_ choices, even the dialogue is from the first game. So, if you've never played Mass Effect, this story will cover the basics. The story starts off with Jennifer Shepard, who is the generic red-head "Jane Shepard", the only difference being a name change (it's just my personal opinion that 'Jane' didn't fit) so she is not an OC (original character). While this story is listed as Garrus and Shepard, I decided not to make them romantic, however, I added extra dialogue and scenes to Mass Effect to give you a feel for an upcoming relationship in the next stories. Basically, Garrus meets Shepard early on when he's young and that gives him more of an emotional attachment to her. While I kept the story true to the game, I wanted to convey more emotion between the characters and Shepard because while I love Mass Effect, the first game can be rather dull in terms of the reactions Shepard gives her crew and vice versa.

So! If you're not interested in a summary story of the events to Mass Effect 1, feel free to skip ahead to Mass Effect 2 once I release the story where romance will blossom and the writing will be more original on my part. This story is simply a recap so you get the background info from the first game while seeing Garrus and Shepard's friendship grow along the way. I will say I focused a lot more on them than the rest of her crew because this fanfiction is dedicated to them becoming friends and eventually a couple while staying true to the game's events. I will continue throughout the series, adding more interactions and personal moments with the crew (Especially Garrus).

Please feel free to give me feedback along the way, what you'd like to see in the next chapters or any ideas you have to make it better. I would love to improve myself so friendly criticisms are appreciated. I'm writing this for fun and want to provide you Shekarian fans with moments Mass Effect didn't have while also giving you the ones they did give us.

Whew! Now that you've heard me out, I hope you enjoy! :)

**Disclaimer:** _I do not own the original story or in-game dialogue used in this story, that respectfully belongs to **Bioware **and the entire Mass Effect team._


	2. Prologue

**Author Note:** "**xxxxx**" indicates a time skip. If I didn't catch any spelling or grammar mistakes then my bad!

So, a little background on this chapter. It starts off with Hannah Shepard and her child, Jennifer Shepard who is about 5 years old.

Then we have a time skip to an Alliance military station were Shepard and her parents are living at for the time being. Shepard is about 14 years old and is attending the station's school for military children/teens. This is prior to the Academy.

Thanks for reading!

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The distant orbs of light littered the black expanse of the night sky, beams streaking across it from nearby comets passing by, as if to say "Hello" to the Earth below. Her green eyes wide at the beauty before her, her little arms wrapped against the windows frame, tiny palms pressed against rosy cheeks speckled with freckles. The door to her moonlit room cracked open leaking warm light in. "Jenny, what are you doing?" A motherly voice cooed at the child. The little one turned her head, eyes brightening at the figure at the door. "Mama, look! The stars are out tonight." The mother quietly approached her, sitting down next to the girl who was keeping her propped up to the height of the windowsill using her knees. The woman's equally green eyes glanced through the window commenting, "A meteor shower tonight, and the sky is so clear...lucky for you, my darling." She smiled at the little one. It wasn't so common to have the stars shine so brightly on Earth, not after their ancestors had polluted the ozone so continually...but with new technology in this day and age, scientists we're fixing those mistakes and the sky was once again clearing up. In the day it was hardly noticeable...but at night, clouds of smoke often hid the great void that was space from vision...tonight however, was not one of those nights.

"One day I'm going to go there" The little girl blurted out, falling back on her bottom on the sheets of the bed, a dreamy look plastered on her baby-faced features. The woman began braiding the fiery red locks of hair that flew wildly down her child's shoulders. "Someday soon my sweet, we can't stay on planet forever, your mothers got a very important job ahead of her." She gave a faint smile, before her eyes drifted back to the stars, hands nonchalantly braiding hair. "So...I'm gonna go to space?" Her child looked up at her, eyes seemingly ecstatic. The mother chuckled at her enthusiasm, "Of course you will, very soon in fact. Your father is coming home, he's going to take us to a place called, "The Citadel", we'll be staying there for a while." The little girl leapt up, shocking her mother as the just finished braid slipped from her hands, suddenly her little one was bouncing on the bed acting 'crazy' in the cutest sense possible. Her mother's lips smoothed into a grin, she got up and grabbed her daughter, one hand under her torso, the other under her legs, holding her like a board as the little girls arms shot forward, pretending she was a spaceship. "Vroom...warb warb warb...shwwwwooosh" Her mother made all the noises of a ship while her daughter let out a fit of giggles. "Jennifer Shepard, we are approaching Alpha Centari...what should we do, go around or survey?" Her mother carried her over to a model of a planet hanging from the ceiling, the daughter reached out flexing her fingers, "Survey! Survey!" She squeaked out, grabbing the model and twisting it around in her hands while her eyes observed it. Her mom smiled, her eyes fixed on the little one. "Find anything?" Her daughter returned the smile with her own. "A colony that needs help!" Her mother made and "o" shape with her mouth then said, "Well, maybe we should go see if this turian ship will help". She pointed her daughter towards a turian ship model across the room. "YES!" She exclaimed with a childish giggle, her mother flying her over pretending to dodge a few asteroids on the way by swaying the child back and forth. The child reached out for the turian ship, hitting her knuckle against it on accident, making the model shake, a cord snapping and sending it to the floor. Both stood for a mere second in silence before the girl began tearing up but before she could burst her mother set her down and picked up the model. "Oh no! They seemed to have crashed, but don't you worry...your moms one of the best engineers out there...she'll have them up and flying again in no time." She winked at her child with a smile gracing her face, making the tears dissipate and a smile paint across her child in no time. "But for now..." her mother continued, placing the model ship on her daughters dresser nearby then swiftly picking up the girl and carrying her to bed, tucking her snuggly in before saying "I think this ship needs to refuel for tonight." She then poked the tip of her nose, earning a giggle in return. "I love you sweetheart." Her mother said softly, leaning forward to hear the little peep of a response, "I love you too Mommy." before settling a kiss upon her forehead. With that, her mother walked to the door, putting her hand on it as she slowly closed it, giving one last look at her daughter, "Goodnight, my little spacer." The door then closed behind her, leaving the little one in her room, the moonlight and stars as her nightlight for tonight. The child then crawled out of the snuggly tucked sheets, dragging her knees across the bed to the window sill, this time going as far as opening the window to feel the fresh night's air caress her face. Then, she crossed her arms over the window sill, tilting her head to the side while pressing her cheek against the nook of her arm. She let out a small sigh, looking at all the stars and comets shooting across the night's sky above her.

_Someday..._

****xxxxx****

The scuffing of boots heavily hit the ground in the hallways of the space station, the Autorum. The chatter of kids was overwhelming as they all clamored together, shouting "**FIGHT!**" "**FIGHT**!" over and over. A heavy chanting rose up in the circle of students. Two opponents in its center who were not engaged in a regulated sparring match by any means. The two we're bloodied and beaten, though one, a lanky turian was on the floor now clutching his mandible. He muttered something in his turian language, a low sub harmonic whining. "**GET UP BIRD-BRAIN**!" The human teen shouted across from him, his fist tainted with a small amount of blue turian blood. The turian looked at him, wobbling to his feet. He was only a few inches taller in comparison to his human counterpart but the two we're of different age, one just heading into puberty, the other heading out of it...or well at least he was supposed to be, though the unregulated fighting wasn't a big indicator this human was an "adult" now. The fight had started like it always had, a human with an ego that had been soared by the fact a turian was on board a human ship, a turian who was also younger but taller than the human (something that some human men had a sore spot about) and well...he had also been a smartass.

The turian had ignored the humans constant berating of him since his father had dragged him to the space station over C-Sec matters no doubt. Though...when the insults over his mother began, it wasn't an easy task to ignore the ignorant human. His father always did say he was a bit of a "_do first, think later_" kind of turian, probably why he was encouraging him to list in the turian military.  
So he did what he normally did, deflected bullying with humor. A few cracks at the human about how he was probably "overcompensating" for something by picking fights, a shot to the kids ego and he had won a fist to the face and a few hostile remarks of the typical xenophobic bullshit most humans tended to spit out, not that he necessarily blamed them...ever since humans first made contact with the turians and the war broke out...some turians and humans still held grudges...grudges they passed onto their children and so on. This turian was thankful not to share a similar view.

His legs buckled in protest of standing after the human had kicked his leg spurs, he was a brute...but he was at least a trained brute. The turian military was looking real good now... "Come on you ugly motherfucker, that all you got?" The turian chuckled, "Ugly motherfucker? ...you humans are so...articulate." His words were dripping in sarcasm. "You know, you could just give up like the rest of the humans did at Shanxi." The human let out what sounded like a roar of anger. Maybe that was **too soon**? The turian thought as the other charged at him, throwing a punch that made him see stars. He took a few steps back, giving a small growl under his voice, before spitting out some blue blood to the floor. "Way too soon."

She had heard the commotion going on in the mess hall area, all her fellow classmates had gathered to watch a fight. It wasn't usual for humans to have fights with each on a station C-Sec supervised, no one wanted to get into trouble so usually if there was any fights to settle, they handled it the sparring area. She followed the flood of people to the hall, hearing the loud roar of the crowd. It took her a few moments before her green eyes could adjust to the crowd and see the boy in the fight, of course it was Mark Tustin, he _always_ was the one to pick fights, but coming from a dominant military family did that to him. She rolled her eyes and tried making it to the opposite side to see the poor fella on the other end of Mark's fist. She squirmed through the crowd, eventually catching a glimpse and to her surprise, it was a turian. Not a C-Sec turian, not a military turian, just a normal turian.

"So...trash talking is fine until you're on the other end of it, huh?"

Her spine tingled when she heard that strange duo voice emanating from him, though when it cracked, it made a crook form in her smile. '_He must be young_.' She figured as she watched Mark get all huffy and puff out his chest in a '_oh so manly way_'. He was heated and the turian? Well he was just downright cool…calm even while blood ran from a small crack in his mandible. She couldn't help but admire that. Mark and the turian began throwing some more punches, each one effectively landing but the turian's form wasn't outstandingly great in comparison to Marks. She could tell Mark was getting drained...sweat was rolling down his face, his bottom lip and nose bloodied. Mark made a few glances at two other humans in the crowd, motioning for them to join him and help out a little. She furrowed her brow when the two went up behind the turian, hitting him in the back of the head and knees making him fall to his knees coughing. Mark wasn't playing fair; the other two joined his side. "Well well bird-brain, looks like I've got backup...and you don't. Maybe you'll think twice about boarding a **human** station." The turian looked up, his vision somewhat blurry as his head tried to catch up with what exactly was going on. "Let's finish this." Mark said to his friends, approaching the turian in a group to kick him till he either surrendered or well...the green eyed girl didn't wait to know the second option before pushing through the crowd and jolting to stand between him and the three bullies.

Suddenly, the crowd grew silent besides a few mutters of "_what is she doing?_" and "she's _crazy_". Mark looked down at her with a dumbfounded look on his face; her face however was deadly stern. "**Shepard**! Get out-of-the-way, this doesn't involve **you**." He spat out with fury. She shook her head while her eyes narrowed on him.  
"No, obviously it does." Her voice was cold. The turian looked up at this human, his face quizzical...trying to figure out why the hell any of the humans here would give a damn about a turian. She looked over her shoulder at him, her face softening a bit and he took in a good look at his human shield from being utterly pulverized. She had long auburn hair that reminded him of a fire, it was pulled into a ponytail against her back, her skin was white, with light freckles under her eyes and across the bridge of her nose. Her lips were full and pink, and her eyes...now _those _we're _something_. The turian looked into the fierce green eyes like they could pierce through the soul and make a grown man scared...yet oddly safe, it was like they held ferocity and an eerie solace at the same time. "Don't worry about these _goons_." She said to him, with a small smile, adding playfully, "Mark's an idiot; you'll have to forgive him." The turian caught himself staring into those eyes for a little too long and fumbled to find a response, croaking out in an embarrassed crackled voice, "Thanks". '_Greeeeat...way to sound like an idiot...' _He inwardly scolded himself while watching her turn her attention back to Mark and the boys, she crossed her arms. "Shepard, you're really gonna protect that..._**thing**_. You choose a **turian** over your own people?"  
The girl known as "Shepard" scoffed at this, "If my people are xenophobic bullies like you than you **aren't **my kind of people." Everyone started looking at her with a mixture of distaste and pride. '_Good to know not everyone here hates me for defending this guy..._' She thought before Mark spoke up, "Shepard, everyone here knows what the turians did to our families and friends in the war, figures **you'd **be a _turian lover_." Shepard gave a heavy sigh and shook her head, "I'm not protecting him because he's a _turian_, I'm doing it because he's a _person_ and you're a bully whose not playing fair...doesn't matter if he's turian, asari, salarian, or human...I'll stand up for anyone that people like **you **think you can push around and if that makes me a '_turian lover' _or any other kind, then so be it...its what's _**right**_".

The commander of the station listened carefully on the ships cameras to the words spoken by Hannah Shepard's daughter...clear, focused, and almost patriotic in a sense. He had held off sending C-Sec when the girl had approached creating a body blockade between her and a turian of all things. He smiled at that, that was the type of tenacity and unprejudiced thinking the Alliance needed, someone who wasn't blind like Mark, someone who would make a good Lieutenant...maybe even a Captain or a Commander someday. He looked at one of his fellow officers in the room, throwing a file to him and commenting, "Let the Alliance know about her, Captain Anderson's always looking for people like her for the Academy...hard to come by these days". The officer saluted, "Yes sir...should I send C-Sec along to deal with the rest of the situation?" The commander gave a small nod, his eyes returning to Shepard on the monitor screen.

Mark again had a clueless look to his face, a blank stare and his mouth agape. "C-Sec is coming, Mark" one of his friends muttered to him. He gave a glare at Shepard, "This _isn't over, _Shepard_._" He said, pointing a finger at her before turning away., pushing his way through the people behind him. The crowd around them slowly began to disperse, leaving Shepard and the turian alone. She turned and lowered a hand to him, which he gladly took, standing fully upright and towering over her. He began to rub the back of his neck awkwardly, his bright blue eyes trying not to lock with hers. He cleared his throat, "Thanks...again..." He stammered a bit, bringing his hands together, rolling them against each other. She simpered at the nervous gesture and threw her hand back; pointing a thumb in the direction Mark went. "Don't worry about it big boy, someone's gotta stand up to assholes like that before they overrun the galaxy." She heard the turian laugh, his voice smooth and metallic in a way. '_Did she just call me big boy?_' He took a mental note of how casual humans could be with their name calling, though he could tell hers wasn't an insult. "No doubt about that..." He responded as coolly as possible trying to make up for sounding like an idiot before when his voice cracked. His voice was awkward and problematic because of his youth and he hoped it wouldn't stay this way for long.  
She the prodded in a friendly sense, "So...what brings a turian into this neck of the woods?" There was a long silent pause from him before he questioned, "_...neck of the woods?_" She mentally slapped herself thinking, '_**Turian **right...forgot'. _"It's a human expression...like, what brings you to our part of town?" He again gave her a confused look, "...but we aren't in a town...this is a space station". She started chuckling to herself, "...You haven't been off Palavan, have you?"  
He fidgeted before running his hand against the back of his neck like before, realizing the nervous tick he played it off cool and rolled his arm as if he was stretching. He leaned in a bit to her, "_Ohh_...oh no no I get off Palavan _all the time._..I've been _a lot_ of places." His voice dropped low as he bluffed, trying to impress his savior while hoping to the Spirits his voice didn't crack in front of her again. Her reaction however, told him his attempt was an utter failure. She crossed her arms, giving him a very smug little look. "_Uh huhhh_, and my dad's a volus." She hummed out sarcastically, making him sigh heavily as he regained his straight posture. "_**Damn**_...that easy to read...so...maybe this is like...my fourth time off-world...my father's got business with C-Sec here, he had me tag along." She raised a brow at that, wondering why on Earth he'd bother to bring his son along but before she could question it, C-Sec had arrived with Mark in tow...someone must've noticed the sneak before he could get the blood cleaned off. The turians held Mark while an older one advanced toward them, making the young turian with Shepard grow tense. "What is it?" She asked noticing his sudden rigid stance. "Oh...nothing...that officer just happens to be my dad." She turned to face the older turian who approached them with a very serious look on his face. A sound stemmed from him that didn't strike Shepard as all too happy. The older turian ignored Shepard and took a spot standing in front of the younger version of himself essentially, both looked similar enough though the clan paint looked worn on the father and less so on the son, the smaller one had brighter eyes and lighter colored plates and an all around smaller fringe and mandibles...but he was still growing. The younger one's head drooped down as the sounds flowing from his father were distinctly turian sub harmonics. Usually a human couldn't hear these frequencies easily, but considering Shepard could, it didn't take a genius to figure out he was reprimanding the youth before him. Shepard couldn't help but stare at how turians did that...it was a quieter way of punishing a child...usually humans just yelled a lot when angry, some even threw things on occasion. Turians however, kept it under wraps. Just another difference that divided the two species.  
She could almost hear faint, small, almost apologetic sounds coming from the younger one as he slowly made eye contact with his father. There was a moment of silence and if Shepard didn't know any better...it seemed like they we're having a silent conversation or at least one she couldn't hear, it wasn't long before the turian she had saved looked towards her while his father's eyes also turned to her.

"I understand my son stirred some trouble...I'm guessing you stopped it?" He asked her, his voice unlike his sons, smooth like silk but firm. This time she couldn't help herself from looking at the markings on his face. Blue, her favorite color...well...next to red anyway. She cleared her throat before speaking, "Yes sir, I stopped it but your son didn't start it." The older turian glanced back at his son who quickly looked away as if pretending he wasn't the focus of the conversation. "_**No? **_...Well, my son has a way of _encouraging _these types of things with his _poor_ choices of word..." His eyes narrowed a bit at the younger one, who finally acknowledged him and gave a look at him of '_yeah...I know I'm a bad turian, I'm sorry_'. He looked back at Shepard, the young girl having her arms behind her back and looking respectful to her superior. "Thank you for stopping the fight, there's not many here that would do that...we should have had C-Sec posted in the mess hall area; it was an error on our end not to." He then gave her a final nod, as if to tell her '_that's the end of that_'. He walked past her over to the bloodied Mark, who was shrugging off the other C-Sec officer holding his arm.

Shepard relaxed and looked to the younger turian, "_Scary..._" she muttered watching him brighten up with a smile. "You should've heard what he was saying to **me**" He snickered before shrugging it off, "Not that I mind." She smiled and said, "Well I admit it's pretty scary when you turians get all quiet like that". The turian looked a little confused. "We seem to have that effect on people...believe it or not he was doing the equivalent of shouting." She gave him a small look of astonishment, thinking, '_wow really...I'd hate to see what actual shouting is like then_' and his response was the smuggest smile she'd ever seen on a turian, almost as if he was proud. "What can I say; I'm a **_bad turian_**..." His voice had dropped to a low octave as he tried to play with her. Shepard just shook her head, giving him a smirk of '_nice try_' and he returned the look with a twitch of his mandibles while his eyes focusing on hers. '_I do my best_'.

**xxxxx**

It wasn't long before Shepard had to return to her studies aboard the station, while the turian had to return with his father to his vessel they sat in silence for a long while, as they traveled to the nearest mass relay. His father was the first to speak up, "I didn't appreciate you causing a ruckus on board that human station...you know human-turian relations are rocky at best right now...why _instigate _them?" He glanced over to his son who gazed out of the cockpit at the world of stars before him, completely zoned out and uninterested in his father. "**_Garrus_...did you hear what I said?**" He asked in a stern tone, making the youth turn to his father. "The human started it-" before he could whine further his father began vocalizing a sub harmonic to cut him off...a '_**don't** cross me right now_' sound. "I don't care whether he did...Garrus you need to learn to control yourself...You're a turian...not one of..._them_." The last word made Garrus cringe, the way his father said it...almost as if he believed they shouldn't be acknowledge as equivalents do to humans being new to the rest of the galaxy...'_a race that is just now catching up to the rest of us_' as most turians would put it. "...Its time you acted like a turian, I've signed off the papers for the turian military." Garrus gave his father a look of surprise. "I was supposed to do that on my own...by my own choice." Garrus seemed a little peeved at his father's back-handedness, his mother wanted Garrus to go when he was ready and now his father was determining just what "ready" meant for him. A _typical _turian father. "I know. You're turning fifteen soon enough...and maybe when your there you'll learn what it means to be a good turian...military will teach you great things Garrus...and also-" He leaned over from his spot in the cockpit seat, swiping a bit of turian blood that had started dripping, off his son's mandible making him flinch slightly. He then raised his fingers for Garrus to see. "-how to avoid this from happening _again_." Garrus almost snorted before muttering, "I gave him some of that too, _you know_..." This did not go over well with his father, who shook his head and heavily sighed, looking at the mass relay now outside the porthole. "In time, you'll change your mind...you'll start seeing that shedding blood isn't always the answer, Garrus. _Do things right or don't do them at all_". Garrus didn't take that last comment much to heart. 

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**Author's Note:** Soooo...awkward teen bonding moments with young Garrus and Shepard! Shepard didn't catch Garrus's name but she'll eventually learn it later on. The 'big boy' will definitely remember her though.

Next Chapter Shepard will be all grown up!


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